Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication such as voice, data, and so on. To improve a given link's robustness, WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) systems based on the IEEE 802.16 standard may provide for the repetition of data over a SISO (single-input single-output) channel. Various modes may be supported, such as a classical repetition protocol where exact copies of a QAM signal sequence or codeword are resent. Other modes include Hybrid ARQ (HARQ), which is a variation of the ARQ error control method. Both protocols involve at least some level of repetition involving transmission of QAM signals.
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that there is a need for optimized implementations of SISO detectors for application in shared communications medium, such as, but not limited to, a wireless network whereby computational resources are efficiently utilized. The wireless network may conform, for example, to the WiMAX standard. Furthermore, there is a need for improving the SNR (signal-to-noise ratio) associated with received signals and ultimately for improving the overall error performance when a repetition channel is considered involving, for example, WiMAX's repetition and HARQ modes.